Slip on 'weak' faults by the rotation of regional stress in the fracture damage zone

D. R. Faulkner (), T. M. Mitchell, D. Healy and M. J. Heap
Additional contact information
D. R. Faulkner: University of Liverpool
T. M. Mitchell: University of Liverpool
D. Healy: University of Liverpool
M. J. Heap: University of Liverpool

Nature, 2006, vol. 444, issue 7121, 922-925

Abstract: Rotation at faults An early finding of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) project, currently drilling an inclined borehole across the San Andreas Fault Zone to a 4-km depth, is that stress is rotated in the vicinity of the fault zone. Why this should occur here and at other similar 'weak' faults is not yet clear. A new model to help explain the phenomenon has been developed, based on field structure data of a large fault zone, lab measurements of rock elasticity, and numerical modelling. The model suggests that stress is re-oriented around faults by the change in rock elasticity resulting from microscale damage produced by the fault.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05353 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:444:y:2006:i:7121:d:10.1038_nature05353

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature05353

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().